Thomas Aquinas Biography

Thomas Aquinas (TAHM-uhs uh-KWI-nuhs) is generally agreed to be the towering figure in medieval theology, and to him goes the principal credit for applying the philosophical doctrines of Aristotle to Christianity. The joining of these seemingly divergent streams of thought in the philosophical movement known as Scholasticism has had tremendous influence on subsequent theological and philosophical thinking.{$S[A]Aquinas, Thomas;Thomas Aquinas}

Thomas was well prepared by his background for the work that was to engage far and away the major portion of his efforts. Born at Roccasecca, near Aquino, Italy, in 1224 or 1225, the son of Count Landolfo of Aquino, he was raised in an atmosphere of ease. Having studied at the Abbey of Monte Cassino, he went from there, in 1239, to Naples to study the liberal arts. He then entered the Order of St. Dominic (c. 1243), abandoning his life of privilege to become a “begging friar.”

Thomas was fortunate to be able to study under Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus) in Paris from 1245 to 1248. While with Albert in Cologne, after his studies in Paris, he was ordained to the priesthood. Shortly thereafter he received advanced degrees in theology. He spent the rest of his life teaching and writing his great treatises—such as his commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard (c. 1100-c. 1160)—in Rome, Paris, and Naples.

Of his works, the two most important are his Summa contra gentiles, which defends Christianity in the area of natural theology, and Summa Theologica, a work whose three divisions are related to God, Man, and Christ and in which Thomas attempted to summarize all human knowledge. This monumental treatise was left unfinished when he died of a sudden illness on March 7, 1274, at Fossanova, Italy, while traveling to the General Council of Lyons. St. Thomas Aquinas, canonized in 1323, remains a central thinker in Christian theology because of his synthesization of past knowledge and his application of the principles of scholastic reasoning to religion.

The moral life, for Thomas Aquinas, consists in each person achieving human fulfillment through freely chosen actions. Presupposed is a human nature with a given, determinate structure and a corresponding determinate fulfillment or perfection. Actions are morally good if they promote this fulfillment and bad if they hinder it. In this sense, Aquinas’ ethics are teleological and eudaimonistic, but unlike classical utilitarianism, the end of good action is not simply pleasure, but the perfection of the human being. Being naturally social, persons cannot attain their perfection alone, but only in community. Consequently, although the ethical life is ordered to promote personal fulfillment, it is not individualistic. Every aspect of Aquinas’ ethics (good action, virtue, law, and so forth) is understood in the light of achieving one’s fulfillment.

Happiness and Beatitude

Aquinas recognized two levels of human fulfillment or happiness. First is the perfection of human nature simply on the natural level, which is the object of philosophical ethics. Second is the Christian understanding of human nature as raised by divine grace and destined to a supernatural end. Theological ethics treats the latter and was Aquinas’ major concern. At both levels, happiness lies primarily in intellectual activity, that of knowing God. The natural end consists in knowing God by philosophical investigation, while the supernatural end consists in a direct vision of God, which is possible only after death.

Good and Evil Actions

Actions such as studying, educating, praying and temperate eating are good because they are intrinsic to true human fulfillment, while acts like murder, stealing, or adultery hinder it and therefore are evil. Besides choosing and performing a good act, a person must intend a good end; friendship in itself is good, but it would not be morally good if it were chosen for the sake of vanity or ambition. Morally good action requires a good act, the right circumstances, and a good intention.

Virtue and Vice

An integral part of Aquinas’ ethics is his theory of virtue and vice. Both virtue and vice are “habits,” steady inner dispositions inclining an agent to a certain mode of action. The virtue of courage inclines one to face dangers when reason judges that good action requires it; under the influence of the vice of cowardice, one would tend to commit evil action rather than face danger. Hence, all habitual tendencies toward perfective activities are virtues and their opposites are vices. There are many different moral virtues and vices corresponding to the many different spheres of moral action: the virtue of religion is a disposition to be properly related to God, liberality is the virtue of being generous with one’s wealth, truthfulness concerns speaking the truth, and so on. The chief moral virtues are the four cardinal virtues: temperance, the right disposition toward pleasures (opposed vices: gluttony, drunkenness, sexual promiscuity); courage, the right disposition toward fearful dangers (opposed vices: cowardice, recklessness); justice, the disposition to respect the rights of others and to treat them fairly (opposed vice: injustice);...

(The entire section is 1335 words.)

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Bradley, Denis J. M. Aquinas on the Twofold Human Good: Reason and Human Happiness in Aquinas’s Moral Science. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1997. Bradley argues that Saint Thomas Aquinas was a theologian first and philosopher second. He contends that to avoid misinterpretation, Aquinas’s writings should be approached from a theological, rather than a philosophical, approach.

Chesterton, G. K. St. Thomas Aquinas. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1933. A superb introduction to the life and thought of Thomas, “the Angelic Doctor.” Aimed at non-Christian readers, or those with little experience in theology.

Davies, Brian. Aquinas. New York: Continuum, 2002. A biography of Thomas Aquinas that covers his approaches to God, theories of being and existence, and his views of the problems of evil, among other topics. Bibliography and index.

Davies, Brian., ed. Thomas Aquinas: Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives. A collection of essays on the philosphy of Thomas Aquinas. Includes essays on matter and actuality, realism, natural reason, freedom, and being and goodness. Bibliography.

Finnis, John. Aquinas: Moral, Political, and Legal Theory. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. An examination of Thomas’ contributions to political and social science. Looks at the saint’ views on freedom, reason, and human goods; human rights; fulfilment and morality; the state; and humans’ origin and end. Bibliography and indexes.